Snare-drum stick



Oct. 30, 1923. 1,472,397

' u. G. LEEDY SNARE DRUM STICK Filed Jan. 22 1923 INVENTOR Ulysses 6iLeedy,

Patented Oct. 30, 1923..

UNITED STATES 1,412,392 PATENT OFFICE.

ULYSSES G. LEEDY, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, ASSIGNOR TO LEEDYMANUFACTUR- IN G COMPANY, OF INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, A CORPORATION OFINDIANA.

SNARE-DRUM STICK.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ULYSSES Gr. Laser, a

citizen of the United States, residing at Indianapolis, in the county oflvlarion'and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Snare-DrumStick, of which the fol lowing is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in drum sticks for snare drums. Ithas for one of its objects that of producing a drum stick for snaredrums which, while having all of the advantages of the conventional,hard headed snare drum stick in playing the snare drum, will possessadded advantages for use in playing the various instruments on which thesnare drummer performs in orchestra work.

As is well known, the snare drummer of an orchestra uses his drumsticks, not only for playing the snare drum, but also for striking thevarious bells, tambourines, tomtoms, wood blocks and other devices. Whenthese instruments are struck by the usual hard headed drum stick aclashing or unmusical note is produced. It is desirable that thesedevices be struck with a padded beater. Heretofore this has beenimpractical because during the performance it would be impractical forthe snare drummer to put down his snare drum stick and pick up a paddedbeater and the padding 0f the snare drum stick would so interfere withthe proper balance of the stick that proper performance on the snaredrum would be prevented. As is well known, snare drum sticks have to becarefully manufactured and care fully balanced, the weight of the headhas to bear a definite relation to that of the handle so that thebalance of the stick will be preserved throughout and a destruction ofthis balance materially interferes with the artistic performance of thedrummer upon the snare drum.

For this reason, while the desirability of a padded head has beenappreciated, heretofore no attempt has been made to pad the head of thesnare drum stick for the very reason that it would destroy the balanceof the stick.

primarily designed to My invention is provide a snare drum stick havingthe advantages of a perfectly balanced stick for playing the snare drumand providingat the same time, a soft head.

I For the purpose of disclosing my inven- Serial No. 614,156.

tion I have illustrated one embodiment thereof in the accompanyingdrawing in which- Fig. l is a side elevation of my improved form ofsnare drum stick;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one type of snare drum for which thestick is designed, and.

hig. 3 is a sectional view stick head.

In the embodiment illustrated, the drum stick 1 is of the conventionaltype of stick having the handle 2. In place of the conventional type ofhead of the usual snare drum stick I substitute a soft head. In providing this type of head I preferably turn a spindle 4 on the stick atthe end where the usual head is provided and mount on this spindle arounded felt head 5. This felt head is fairly hard and in constructingthis head the weight is very carefully adjusted to maintain the samebalance that would be provided on the stick in event the usual woodenhead is provided. One way of maintaining this balance is to have the wei'ht of the felt equal to the weight of the through the wood which wouldbe allowed to remain on the spindle in event the conventional woodenheaded stick were used. By such a construc tion I am enabled to maintainthe accurate balance of the stick and at the same time provide a softhead for striking the various instruments on which the snare drummerperforms. Furthermore, the felt head as provided in no way interfereswith the note produced by the drum nor with the playing of the drum bythe performer.

I claim as my invention:

A snare drum stick of conventional size and shape and having a feltedheater head of a weight equivalent to the conventional wooden head forthe same size and balanced stick to produce a soft beater head on asnare drum stick whereby the stick may be used for performance on otherinstruments than the drum without sacrificing the correct balance of thestick for snare drum performance.

It witness whereof I, ULYssns Gr. Iinnnr, have hereunto set my hand atIndianapolis, Indiana, this 10th dayof January, A. D. one thousand ninehundred and twenty three.

ULYssEs o. LEEDY.

